


Darling, Don't Be Afraid, I Have Loved You For A Thousand Years, I Will Love You For A Thousand More

by I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own



Series: Malec One Shots [3]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Always read the fine print, And when you make deals with the devil, Immortal Alec Lightwood, Time Travel, post S3E10 Coda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-05-10 03:35:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14729192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own/pseuds/I_have_a_Mycroft_of_my_very_own
Summary: In which Alec makes a deal with the Devil he doesn't YET know, and he spends an age trying to find his way back to HIS Magnus.





	Darling, Don't Be Afraid, I Have Loved You For A Thousand Years, I Will Love You For A Thousand More

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not as happy with this, but I mean, it's the best I can do without breaking it into chapters and creating a fic I will literally never finish... so...

  _I have died everyday, waiting for you._  
_Darling, don't be afraid,_  
I have loved you for a thousand years,  
_I'll love you for a thousand more._  
~A Thousand Years, Christina Perri

* * *

 Between one day and the next, Alec Lightwood disappears off the face of the earth. None of the warlocks can track him, Jace’s parabatai rune fades and they can’t trace him through that either, not even Shadowhunter tracking works. He’s just… gone. Magnus spends the days waiting for something to arrive on his doorstep, gloating about having his Shadowhunter, but nothing comes.

Magnus’ magic returns to him slowly over the days following Alec’s disappearance, Magnus doesn’t want to think they’re linked, but he must. It doesn’t stop him trying to use his magic to track Alec.

It doesn’t work.

The days go by, until it’s weeks, and weeks go by until it is months, and months… well they go by, too. Until suddenly it is five years.

* * *

Five years and Magnus finds himself drowning in his fifth cocktail of the night, babbling to anyone who will listen how much he misses Alec, how much he misses his angel, until someone sits down in the chair beside him, and Magnus goes to tell them all about Alec too, only to find himself staring at his lost love.

“Alexander.” Magnus exclaims in surprise, his eyes going wide as he goes to magic himself sober, Alec grabs his hands, holds them firm.

“I think you need to go to bed, Magnus. We can talk tomorrow.” Alec promises, Magnus shakes his head.

“You won’t be here tomorrow.” He whispers, Alec gives him a sad little smile.

“I’ll be there, I’m not going anywhere again, okay? Now let’s get you home.” Alec says, pulling Magnus to his feet. “Magna.” He calls, and the next moment, Magnus hears the familiar sounds of a portal swirling nearby, Alec pulls them through, and they’re standing outside his front door. Magnus feels the way the wards sing, trying to caress Alec, trying to bury themselves in them, Magnus would be so self-conscious about how much his magic loves this man, if he didn’t already feel the same.

Alec, for his part, simply smiles and pats the door. “I’m happy to be back, too.” He says, to the magic, and it feels like a hyperactive puppy, and Magnus feels all kinds of betrayed when the door unlocks with a pop and swings open without Magnus’ say so. Alec laughs and pulls Magnus inside. “C’mon, let’s put you to bed.”

* * *

Magnus falls asleep wrapped so tightly around Alec, it must be hard for the Shadowhunter to breathe, but Alec doesn’t complain, he just wraps his arms around Magnus just as tight and holds on.

“Sleep, love, I will be here when you wake.” Alec says, and Magnus obeys.

* * *

Magnus wakes with his face resting against something hard and warm, and he’s confused for all of the five minutes it takes for his hungover brain to remember the events of the night before, then he’s springing out of bed, onto his feet, magic crackling at the tips of his fingers, as he stares at the man lying in his bed. Said man just raises an unimpressed eyebrow at him, sits up and waits for Magnus’ breathing to slow again. Ever so slowly, the magic crackling at Magnus’ fingertips begins to ebb away, as Magnus’ heart slows its pace. Magnus takes a deep breath in and sits himself back down on the bed, staring.

“Do I have something on my face?” the man, the mirage, for it must be a mirage, asks, bringing a hand up to rub his face, Magnus swallows thickly.

“Alec.”

“Gods, it’s been forever since I went by that name.” Alec replies, but there’s a pleased smile on his face. “I told you I’d be here when you woke up.”

“How? I-I couldn’t track you, Jace couldn’t track you, the Clave, the other Warlocks… you just-you disappeared off the face of the earth!!” Magnus exclaims, reaching out with shaking hands to caress Alec’s face, his chest, his arms, his _hair_ , Alec stays still under his ministrations, but that pleased little smile stays firmly in place.

“Your father visited me, I’ve come to the conclusion he’s not actually trapped in Edom, by the way.” Alec says, with a little laugh. “Anyway, your father visited me, told me I could get your magic back for a price.” He explains, shrugs his shoulders. “I told him to give your magic back, and take whatever price he wanted, I didn’t need to know, because it didn’t matter, I was going to pay it no matter what. So, he did. I went to sleep and woke up some ridiculous amount of time in the past.” Alec takes a deep breath in and looks away, and it’s then that Magnus notes his deflect rune is missing.

“What did he do to you?” Magnus asks, lying down on the bed and rolling towards Alec, the Shadowhunter pulls him into his lap and holds him.

“I don’t know, all this time and I don’t know. I’m not-I’m not a Shadowhunter anymore.” Alec says, swallowing heavily. “When I woke up, all my runes were gone, but I don’t need them anymore anyway.” He continues, an amused little grin on his face. “I’m not-quite-a-Warlock, that’s what Magna calls me, anyway.”

“Magna?” Magnus asks, his brow furrowing.

“My daughter.” Alec answers, voice so utterly fond. “I named her for you, you know? When I found her outside a church, just screaming for the entire world to hear, her eyes golden and cat like, magic heaving and roiling around her, and I thought of you.” Alec says, smiling happily, Magnus allows a smile to form on his face, too. “Of course, it’s fitting in another way, since she’s your niece.”

“What?” Magnus exclaims, sitting up quickly, Alec lets him go.

“I told you your father isn’t as trapped in Edom as we thought, neither are the Asmodei, really, they just stay there because your dad would be pissed at them if they left.” Alec explains, shrugging his shoulders again, “Anyway, one of them jumped ship a few centuries ago, went and had some fun with a mundane, and viola, Magna was born. Your dad was so pissed, but he dropped by to play with Magna a few times before she was old enough to walk, and he’s dropped by a few times since then. He… dotes on her, it’s weird, but he used to dote on Heta, too, so I can’t really say it’s all that odd…”

“Heta?” Magnus asks, wondering for the first time in a long time if this is how his lovers have felt over the years, hearing him talk of people they will never know or will only ever meet in passing.

“Oh, your sister. She was Nephilim, born before your father’s fall.” Alec explains, his eyes lighting up as he speaks about her. “She found me, when he sent me back in time. I woke up in her cave, and she decided it wouldn’t be polite to murder me for scaring the hell out of her. Instead she gave me furs, and taught me how to make weapons, and taught me how to hunt… you know, actual animals. If I could have, I would have waited out the centuries with her, she was… simple. Just being in her presence was a blessing, but she may have been True Nephilim, like Shadowhunters _aren’t,_ but she wasn’t immortal, and so one day, she went to sleep and never woke up. I think I lost ten centuries mourning her, the times had certainly changed by the time I was aware of them again…” Alec says, trailing off, his eyes with a glazed, faraway look in them, and Magnus gets a glimpse, for the first time, of what his lovers must see when he thinks of his loved ones long lost.

“Did you love her?” Magnus asks, and he hates himself for it, how can he begrudge a sister that he will never meet for finding peace in Alec’s arms the way he always has?

“Of course, I did.” Alec answers, without hesitation. “She taught me to survive in my new circumstances, and I told her stories about the little brother she’d never meet. She thought I was a lovesick fool, and I thought she was far more angelic than I ever could be.” Alec says, then his brain must catch on to what Magnus was really, stupidly, asking and he let’s out a little gasp. “Oh, you mean, did I love her like I love you?” he asks, and Magnus nods his head, hating himself for it, but Alec just smiles at him fondly, and Magnus feels a warmth in his chest, that’s been cold for so long. “No. I loved her like I love Izzy.” Alec explains, and puts all Magnus’ fears to rest. “Anyway, your father loved Heta like nothing I’ve ever seen. She only needed to think of him and he was there. And when he fell, she cried for days. But he still came to visit, and we both pretended I hadn’t already known he was always destined to fall.”

“What-what have you been doing all these past years?”

“A little bit of this, a little bit of that.” Alec replies, sounding nonchalant. “After Heta died, I just drifted wherever my feet would take me not really paying attention to the passage of time, until one day, about eight hundred years ago, I was in Sunda Kelapa, helping this young woman deliver a baby. It was a hard labour, and I thought a few times that she wasn’t going to make it, but she did. I was the first person in all the world to hold her baby in my arms, and he screamed like the hounds of hell were after him, his eyes golden and cat like as he stared me down. His father appeared at my side, tutted at me and the baby, and with a touch of magic, the babe’s eyes were the dark not-colour that all babies’ eyes are when first born, and I passed him to his mother and he quieted in an instant, and the next day I was off again, somewhere else.” Alec says, pointedly not looking at Magnus, even though there’s a big smile on his face.

“What?” Magnus exclaims, voice choked.

“You were a cute baby.” Alec tells him, offhandedly. “Loud, but cute. Anyway, I spent a few years off helping the little people, and thinking about that little Warlock boy, wondering where he was, and how he was doing, and if he’d found somewhere to be yet. I think you would have been eleven when Asmodeus popped up again, and I guilted him into checking on you. Told him Heta would have never forgiven him for leaving her little Bane to fend for himself. I don’t know if I did you a favour, or a disservice, but whatever it was, I was calmed to know your father was there within reach.”

“Oh, Alexander.” Magnus breathes, burrows in against Alec’s chest.

“There is… so much to tell you. But I don’t want to talk about the past anymore. I just want to be here with you, and we never have to argue about your immortality again, because I’m… legitimately thousands of years older than you, so if anyone is going to die young, it’s you.” Alec says, giving a little laugh, Magnus chuckles and rubs at his teary eyes.

“I-I guess I’ll just have to get used to that.”

“Yes, and you’re gonna have to get used to being a dad, or at least an uncle. But I mean, you practically raised Raphael, so…”

“Raphael was practically raised when I got him.” Magnus argues, Alec snorts.

“Yeah, I guess, but so’s Magna, and I did all the hard work there.”

“So, you did.” Magnus says, and for the first time in five years, presses his lips to Alec’s.

“Gods, I’ve missed you.” Alec exclaims, and holds as tightly to Magnus as he can.

And just like that, all is right in Magnus’ world again.

* * *

 _And all along I believed, I would find you._  
_Time has brought your heart to me,_  
_I have loved you for a thousand years,_  
_I'll love you for a thousand more._  
~ A Thousand Years, Christina Perri

**Author's Note:**

> Things to note:  
> Sunda Kelapa, the port city before Jayakarta, that became Batavia, then Djakarta, that became Jakarta. (assuming my, admittedly quick, research is correct.) Sunda Kelapa was the name of the port city during the period 8 hundred years ago, when for this fic I'm saying Magnus was born. In the books, Magnus is like 400 and was born in Batavia.  
> Heta + the time Alec is sent back to: Alec is essentially sent back to the dawn of human kind, but after all the Adam/Eve/Lilith shite happened (because, excuse me, evolution still exists in this fic universe, thank you very much).
> 
> There will be little oneshots set in this universe.


End file.
